David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence

Guided Mastery.... Creative Confidence  http://support.ted.com/

It happens from time to time that I lose myself inside myself and I must search for the little bits scattered about to remind me of who I am... To remember the things that inspire me to create.

Poetry, a photo, a note tucked into my journal: These things eventually lead me back to my own unique voice.

"Like Raymond Carver I also have a photograph of my father. I found it last night whilst sorting through boxes looking for Christmas ornaments. It's a photo I had put away intentionally, buried deep under old work files and papers I had written in college. A photo that I had no desire to see again.


This picture was not given by him. My aunt had given it to me when I turned seventeen. "You look so much like your father," she had said, and I remember feeling the creep of discomfort, looking away. I didn't know how to respond. As I recall I mumbled something about my uncle telling me that before. She went on as I sat in awkward silence, her tone collusive; the family was just outside on the patio and this was forbidden conversation." A Photograph of My Father

The Commitment to Write

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Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking? From Copyblogger

Check out who I'm talking to now: Interviews From The Edge on Youtube    Interviews From The Edge on my Technorati Writer Profile    Blogcritics A GEEK GIRL Profile   Currently Gearing Up To Cover the 2012 Concert & Music Festival Season   Look for the reviews soon on my National Music History Examiner page and my Salon Blog: Music & Concert Guide.  Hang with Me on Twitter: @a_geek_girl

A Day In The Life - Grace

I received this email in February from a woman who used one of the breast cancer templates I created to design her friend's breast cancer journal, A Day in the Life

Hello T~

I wanted to let you know that I have created a blogspot template for a friend based on your goinpink_evening template.

Tuesday evening I received a panicked email from one of my blogging friends. She's recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She found your template, and tried to install it. Unfortunately, she was unable to understand the HTML after switching back to the Classic Blogger format. She was afraid she'd lost all her widgets in the process. She asked me to help her out, and sent the .zip file for the template.

I decided to use it for inspiration. She loved the header graphic, and the color scheme you'd created, so I took it from there.

Anyway, long story short, I want you to know that I've given you credit, and a link. If you'd like to go take a look at the site, you'll find it here.

From one geek to another, thank you for your inspiration... it made the gift to my friend a joy to create.

Warmest Regards~
~C

That note made the tears and hair-pulling I went through to build those templates (quickly - Pink For October was around the corner) worth it.
And seeing the final result filled me with so much pride.

I also noted how she credited herself and I on the side bar.
Template created with love for Grace
by :: CeeCi
Inspired by :: WoodNotWood
Awareness Template#4
Just beautiful.
Please swing by and show Grace your support on her brave journey.

 

Currently Reading: The Red Door by Charles Todd
Look for the review soon on my blogcritics writer profile page.

BlogExplosion 2010 Problems in the blogosphere

Anji, one of my co-blog-reviewer-approvers on blogexplosion, recently wrote a few posts on problems that we've been having since the loss of contact with the blogexplosion owners and senior administrator.
BlogExplosion: Problems logging in and surfing

This post is a message for her and all others who might be having the same concerns.

Anji, I did manage to locate some older blog posts about BE having this same problem sporadically over the years. It seems to occur every couple of years. 2006, 2007, Blog posts complaining of no support/admin responses and thumbnails not being updated, etc. Those posts correspond with changes in ownership and management.

I have a feeling that what has happened is our senior *volunteer* admin finally gave up trying to keep up, particularly in light of the fact that he was working for free -- He maintained the site. Dealt with server and script issues. Added new blogs. Updated thumbnails. Created new ideas to keep the site fresh and interesting (He did a great job there, but that had to be majorly time consuming.) Responded to emails. Checked every forum post and deleted the spam. Checked each site that received a *flag* for content. Responded to member complaints about other blogs or comments that had been left by members on their profiles.

I have a feeling that the straw that finally broke the camel's back was the constant complaints and gripes at him from us, the members. Complaints that 'admin' and 'support' were not responding to emails and thumbnail requests quickly enough. That sort of thing...

I know there were others helping him before, but they didn't appear to last long. I had no idea that 'admin' and 'support' was really just one guy, trying to do it all alone-- and for free, until you told me. He never said anything about it on the forum or in email responses. I think we all would have been a bit more patient had we known that. And a bit more appreciative of his efforts to keep the community happy and the site interesting.

I'm sure the in-boxes for support and inquiries are over-flowing with duplicate email requests sent multiple times by the same people-- and spam. I don't think he'll ever look in there again. I don't think he'll ever come back. He obviously got just as much support from LiveUniverse as we did. None. And he has a job and a family.

I think what will happen (as portended by the past) is that ?LiveUniverse? -- or current owner -- will eventually do a spot check (probably an annual or bi-annual audit of sorts, or to pretty it up for sale, again) to make sure everything is up and running. They'll see there is no senior admin and take back control of it.

They'll probably delete all of our approval accounts without notice--we just won't be able to login one day-- they'll clean out the support requests and admin emails (they know that there are thousands waiting for approval and more coming in every day, if someone needs support badly enough they'll send a fresh email when they see there's new management) They'll add new advertisements and apps. maybe even give the whole place a shiny new look.

Then suddenly a new admin group will appear. They'll set about fixing what needs to be fixed and BE will take off again with a re-newed enthusiasm...
until the next break down or sale.

Don't fret Angie Baby. These things are cyclic. We're just feeling the same stress that our 'admin' felt; like we're personally responsible for each and every member's satisfaction and all of the guilt that comes with not being able to keep everyone happy.

I'm kicking back and enjoying the time I have left to approve blogs.

Information For New Members

I'm thinking we should create a standard email we can send to new members as we add their blogs. Just to let them know that BE is in a holding pattern, and to be patient. That support is not currently available, and they should not make any site purchases until further notice.

But they should log into their accounts and go to 'surf member blogs' to start earning credits and that they need to go to the 'assign credits' page after each surfing session to move the new earned credits into their blog account. They can also choose the option to have those credits automatically assigned -- then they won't have to do anything except have fun surfing blogs and meeting new bloggers.


(click to enlarge)


I'm making my predictions based on information from the web and in old newsletters I received from BE about how these problems occurred, and were resolved, in the past. I've listed the BE NEWSLETTERS that I think are significant, but you might want to read them all for their historic value. The changing personalities of the owners, admins, and the site as a whole.

Sept 28, 2004 Meet Thomas and Jeff: The guys who created blogexplosion issue their first email newsletter.
April 24, 2006 Blogexplosion Sold: BlogExplosion has been sold to Stephen Sartain.
May 3, 2006 Under New Management: Meet the new blogexplosion management Lewis Johnston and Stephen Sartain
June 9, 2006 Ooops and Ouch: BlogExplosion is up for Sale again
June 17, 2006 Blogexplosion Sold (Again): "The new owners are a large group." This is where the mystery begins... a large group of what?


I have one more piece of information I'd like to share for people who have submitted a blog at blogexplosion for review and have not yet been approved.

In 2008 the senior administrator and resident geek Chris created an algorithm to move those who are serious about becoming community members to the top of the approval list. Here's what he had to say about it on the forum.

Hi Susan

It sounds like you may have been caught by my blog verification algorithm. If a user does not attend (log in to) blogexplosion for more than 30 days their blog is moved to another queue.

The idea of this is to ensure only blogs with active owners are reviewed. With such a huge backlog I had to find a way to bring legitimate blogs to the front of the queue.

For an idea of whether it works or not there is still over 4000 in the queue waiting for their owners to come back.

They will not be processed unless the owners return and log in at BE -- because you came back your blog was automatically rushed to the front of the queue.

Once the queue drops to less than a 30 day backlog all blogs will be reviewed in the order they are submitted

Chris







Currently Reading: What Will Happen in Eragon IV by Richard Marcus
Look for the review soon on my blogcritics writer profile page.

Haloscan Closing - export comments to a new system

I've got an app for that.

Recently Echo announced that they're closing Haloscan commenting.
They've given users two choices:
1) Export comments or lose them.
2) Pay for the formerly free service and upgrade to Echo.
Needless to say people are confused.
I've been watching and waiting for my notification.
It came last night in the form of an email.

Haloscan is being shut down on: Feb 04, 2010
The Haloscan hardware and software is physically failing and we have no choice but to discontinue the service. (yeah. sure. right.)

Two Options: Switch to Echo or Export your comments FREE.
Although we can't rescue Haloscan, we are trying our best to limit the negative impact on users. To do this, we have worked hard to provide 2 options for Haloscan sites.

Log in now to make your choice and continue without interruption
I don't really see a choice here. It doesn't support popular blogging platforms.
Or spellcheck. Obviously.

Haloscan upgrade FAQ

Their blog has gone crazy as some people vent anger and others just sound desperate and depressed.
http://blog.js-kit.com/2009/12/09/haloscan-is-getting-upgraded-to-echo/
http://blog.js-kit.com/2009/12/15/announcing-a-new-brand-mission-and-customers/
It's a little strange to see such self congratulatory and uncaring attitudes towards disappointed potential clients. For myself, I don't intend to comment on sites using Echo. I can't even begin to express my disappointment in finding that Technorati has become a client, I can only pray that they'll realize how much commenters dislike Echo and dump it. And I also pray that they won't force it on us at blogcritics.org, but we are sharing one umbrella so to speak... they are we and we are them.
Every site that I've seen using echo so far has dumped it.
Commenters hate it.

There's an old geek saying
If two wrongs don't make a right... try three.
It has nothing to do with the fact that they've monetized. At least not from what I've seen. I wouldn't mind paying for my commenting system. I would have happily given them $12 a year to continue to use haloscan. Most users would. But I keep hearing the same complaint. People don't like Echo. Geeks like Echo, at least the idea of it. But readers don't like it. And in the face of the 'F Off' attitude of its administrators I can't say that I would ever trust them either. Too self-serving. Too set in the mind frame that data aggregation creates community, rather than people.

Here's what Paul had to say in comments.
I agree with him whole-heartedly.
Now of course I wish I had never gone with Haloscan in the first place. I have a selfhosted blogger blog using my own template. I no longer have the code to put my blogger comments back in place, so find myself facing the prospect of upgrading to a service that I don't want to use, or losing the facility of comments altogether.

All the guides about reverting from Haloscan to Blogger assume that you use the new blogspot templates, so sadly I cannot undo what I did three years ago. Coincidentally, JS-Kit appears to believe all Blogger users are on blogspot sites, as trying to sign in with my Blogger identity didn't work, as my blog isn't on blogspot...

Coming to the Rescue of the Blogosphere

Thankfully, there is a very kind person providing a service for free to transition comments from Haloscan to a new comment platform. (I found him and it's one poor guy collecting all of those xml files through email and transferring them for free. I can't imagine how many are emailing him for help.)

Please export your files from your haloscan account before emailing Kirk.
It's easier for him to pull them from the site, but they may be gone before he can get there. So best to have that back-up on hand just in case.
The comments will be transferred into tridentscan. It's just like haloscan.

Go to this site http://tridentscan.jaggedseam.com/ to get email information.
And Please Be Patient.
He's just one guy.
One great guy who embodies the spirit of the blogosphere.
Community.

So, who's next?
I know there are some programmers out there who can whip up something to help out.
Put your thinking caps on.
We need you.





Currently Reading: Web of Deceit by Darlene Cox
Look for the review soon on my blogcritics writer profile page.

How to Spice Up Your Blog - The One Brick Shy Gadget

I now have an iGoogle gadget named for me.

Gadgets Directory, whom I linked in my Blog Explosion post created a thing for me. A thing which looks like this...


And does this...


I have no idea what this thing is but I want it.
They call it the One Brick Shy Gadget. Of course it may just be my RSS feed through iGoogle, but that's okay. It's mine. All mine.
It is proof positive of what many have long suspected-- I am a gadget.

Come stare in wonder at the page upon which it resides.
ONE BRICK SHY Gadget

I also added a signature to my posts thanks to this great post called How to Create a Stylish Signature on spiceupyourblog.com


It is beautiful, no?

Make sure you read Paul Crowe's instructions when making your signature. He has many useful suggestions and instructions on adding your signature to each post automatically.



Currently Reading: My Life and Other Lies: Tales from the Writer's List by Steve Pitt. The review is up on A Geek Girl at blogcritics.org